True Name: Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (阮福永瑞)
Parents: Khai Dinh, king of Annam, and Tu Cung
Date of Birth: 22 October 1913
Royal House: Nguyen
Spouse: Nam Phuong, daughter of Pierre Nguyen Huru-Hao, and Marie Le Thj Binh, among others
Predecessor: Khai Dinh
Reign: 1926 – 1945
Summary: The son of the weak ruler of Annam, the central portion of the French-controlled colony of Vietnam, it was unlikely that Bao Dai would ever wield any real power. His dynasty, the Nguyen, had ruled in Vietnam since 1802, mostly as rulers of Annam and Tonkin. When he was nine, Bao Dai was sent to France and educated at the Lycée Condorcet and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. His father died in 1926 and the prince took the name Bao Dai (Keeper of Greatness) as his regnal name. Since he was still young, he returned to Paris and continued his studies. He returned in the early 1930s and married Marie-Thérèse Nguyen Huru Thj Lan, a Roman Catholic commoner. Over the next ten years, the couple had five children. Marie-Thérèse was crowned Empress in 1945. Bao Dai also married many other women throughout his life, including a cousin and a Chinese woman.
Royal House: Nguyen
Spouse: Nam Phuong, daughter of Pierre Nguyen Huru-Hao, and Marie Le Thj Binh, among others
Predecessor: Khai Dinh
Reign: 1926 – 1945
Summary: The son of the weak ruler of Annam, the central portion of the French-controlled colony of Vietnam, it was unlikely that Bao Dai would ever wield any real power. His dynasty, the Nguyen, had ruled in Vietnam since 1802, mostly as rulers of Annam and Tonkin. When he was nine, Bao Dai was sent to France and educated at the Lycée Condorcet and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. His father died in 1926 and the prince took the name Bao Dai (Keeper of Greatness) as his regnal name. Since he was still young, he returned to Paris and continued his studies. He returned in the early 1930s and married Marie-Thérèse Nguyen Huru Thj Lan, a Roman Catholic commoner. Over the next ten years, the couple had five children. Marie-Thérèse was crowned Empress in 1945. Bao Dai also married many other women throughout his life, including a cousin and a Chinese woman.
World War II changed politics in Vietnam in many ways. Most importantly, the French government was taken over by Japanese overlords. While the French retained nominal control, the Japanese controlled most policy. But Bao Dai worked hard during these years to oust the French from Vietnam entirely. The Japanese supported this movement and, in 1945, it succeeded and Bao Dai proclaimed himself the emperor of a fully independent Vietnam. The country quickly joined the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere created by the Japanese. The Japanese retained a Vietnamese prince who was raised by Japanese officials to replace Bao Dai in case Vietnamese politics went a different direction. But things then turned a different way. Japan was defeated in August 1945 and the Vietminh under Ho Chi Minh sought a free Vietnam. Because of his association with Japan, Ho Chi Minh convinced Bao Dai to abdicate the Vietnamese throne, handing political power to the Vietminh. Bao Dai remained as "supreme advisor" to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The new republic only lasted a year. In November 1946, the French returned and ousted the upstart republicans. Vietnam descended into civil war, the true start of the Vietnam War, and Bao Dai fled to Hong Kong and then China. In 1949, the French recalled him to rule as head-of-state rather than emperor. But he only stayed for a few months before returning to France. When the communists won in China in late 1949, the Vietminh was reinvigorated. The United States recognized the Empire of Vietnam under Bao Dai in 1950 even though the former emperor had left. The U.S. began supplying the French and pro-imperial forces in Vietnam as the start of an anti-communist crusade. When the Geneva Accords were signed in 1954 separating Vietnam into Northern and Southern regions, Bao Dai remained head of state in the south, but appointed Ngo Dinh Diem his prime minister and removed himself from politics once again. The next year, Bao Dai abdicated the throne again after a referendum highlighted the people's desire to form a republic. Bao Dai settled in France and Monaco and became a frequent sailor. He was constantly petitioned by both Vietnamese governments during the war to act as a spokesperson, head-of-state, or political unifier. While supporting a democratic republic, he spoke against the United States' military in Vietnam and sought peace. Despite his popularity among the Vietnamese government, the Vietnamese people and the French disliked the former emperor, the former because of his status as a French and Japanese puppet ruler, the latter because he supported the anti-French rebellion. Despite it all, he never had much political power in Vietnam. When he died in 1997, he was largely forgotten by Vietnam. His son, Bao Long, succeeded as the head of the family.
Date of Death: 30 July 1997
Successor: Bao Long (as pretender)
Other Monarchs Who Died Today:
Successor: Bao Long (as pretender)
Other Monarchs Who Died Today:
- Benedict I, pope of Rome (579)
- Meiji, emperor of Japan (1912)
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